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A Matter of Faith—movie review

Highlighting real world problems for Christian families

Published: 25 September 2014 (GMT+10)

Synopsis follows

On September 26, 2014 a new movie by Christian filmmaker Rich Christiano (Time Changers, Jonathan Sperry, and Unidentified) will debut on screens across America. In this venture Rich (and his writer brother Dave), tackle the issue of creation vs. evolution and how it directly impacts Christian families. Christiano films have been family friendly and generally theology sound. In short, they don’t usually suffer from the usual ‘fluff’ that passes for Christian entertainment, because most of their movies have educational value.

The stage is set when a young Christian girl (Rachel) excitedly goes off to college for her freshman year (1st year). Her parents are staunch Bible believing Christians, but they start to notice a change in their daughter’s behavior, and ultimately find out this is linked to her waning faith caused by her doubts in the reliability of Scripture. Because their daughter has done all the things Christian parents would want her to do while growing up in their home, they are shocked to the core and at a loss to understand the changes. After investigation, her father discovers that her biology professor (Professor Kaman) is teaching her that evolution is a scientific fact and the answer to life’s origins, and ergo, the Bible’s account of Genesis is incorrect.

… it is a tragic reality that Christian families all around the world have children that leave the faith after entering higher education.

Indeed, in my conversations with the director Rich, he stated that the aim of the movie was not necessarily attempting to deal with the specifics of the creation vs. evolution debate (so one should not judge it on that basis), but to alert families of the problems facing young ones today in college. We applaud the movie for attempting this because it is a tragic reality that Christian families all around the world have children that leave the faith after entering higher education. In the USA, practically every denomination can testify to the exodus of youth from their pews after just one year of college.

The father complains to his pastor and expresses shock that they even teach evolution in college and don’t even consider biblical creation. Now, we would agree that many parents are ignorant as to the corrosive effects of teaching evolution can be on one’s faith and don’t prepare their children sufficiently. Or that parents are overconfident that their children’s childhood faith will withstand the secular onslaught that will occur on campuses. But the portrayal that the father did not know what his daughter would be taught in a secular college was a tad unrealistic and I think it somewhat damaged the overall believability of the movie’s premise, because it portrayed the father as rather ignorant of the real world.

Train a child

As most readers are aware, CMI conducts over 1,000 ministry events around the world each year. One of our main goals when ministering in churches is to create awareness within Christian families that their children are at risk unless parents prepare them in advance. In short, the Bible is not enough for young ones when they will get peppered by academics that wheel out a range of seeming scientific ‘facts’ that our children have not been equipped to answer or discern.

The father goes to see Rachel’s college professor which only makes the relationship with her father worse. The arrogant college professor, believing he has all the ‘evidence’ on his side, challenges the father to a public debate. A sympathetic (creationist) male student approaches the father to offer some advice. He provides the name of a former college lecturer (Professor Portland) who was fired by the college because of his beliefs in creation. This was done at the behest of the evolutionist biology professor Kaman. The father tries to enlist Portland’s help but he is still bitter at the college and his former adversary Kaman and declines.

We won't spoil the ending!

So, the father attempts to study and prepare for the debate. His daughter pleads with him not to do it for fear of her public embarrassment as news is spreading fast on campus. Under the surface this should make viewers realize that the daughter is apparently convinced that her father will lose, otherwise why is she embarrassed? Ultimately, the debate goes ahead to a packed audience and the finale of the movie is played out.

Summary

Despite some of the possible reality checks the movie lacked, we still feel this is very worthwhile viewing for the aforementioned reasons. Parents need to be aware that they must deal with this issue of origins in the home because public education is not neutral when it comes to origins. The fact is university campuses today are really churches of atheism because they teach a materialistic view of our origins. Such a view is in direct opposition to the belief that God is the Genesis Creator, and if Genesis is demonstrably wrong it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to extrapolate that the rest of Scripture is unreliable also. For, if Jesus is not the Creator as mentioned in John 1, Colossians 1 etc. then He does not have the power to save us from anything!

We would think that a great companion to this movie would be our own Evolution’s Achilles Heels book and soon to be released DVD (at the time of writing) as they deal directly with the very pillars that are foundational to evolutionary theory. The DVD contains interviews with 15 Ph.D. scientists who expose, with stunning clarity, evolution’s fatal flaws. So, perhaps instead of being impressed by the seeming authority of their lecturers in college, students might be similarly impressed by seeing renowned Ph.D. scientists explain why they believe in the Genesis account of Creation.

If you are also interested in screening Evolution’s Achilles’ Heel in your own church click here to find out more.

Readers’ comments

This is so true but it is only half the truth. Universities also teach the ideas of Plato, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. These are the men who have brought in the Post Modern age and full relativity in everything. For Nietzsche read, 'life style'. For Plato read elite, I.Q. and eugenics (family planning) For Kierkegaard read, 'a leap in the dark' and 'blind faith. I do not think the university teachers themselves really understand that they are bringing back the ideas of Hitler, Himmler and Stalin; with others of the same ilk. This teaching has now filtered down through all society and is spreading through international academia, has spread and will go on spreading. Now the popular press and broadcasting say 'unacceptable' instead of 'wrong'. There are no absolutes in Post Modernism and faith, to them, is a 'leap in the dark'. Since humans are still rational and moral beings they live in tension and make up pseudo ethics such as 'survival' and 'I did it my way'. It seems to me that Darwin has driven the move to Post Modernism. Even though Nietzsche belittled Darwin and evolution, his successors, including Hitler who was told by Nietzsche's sister that he was the Overman who created values and willed them into being, have made an unholy marriage to give birth to Post Modernism and Relativity. These teachings are only really overt in the Universities. However the language they use has become general in nearly the whole of society in the North and the West and those related nations as in the South Pacific. Creation versus evolution is a fairly open fight. This is far more subtle and goes on almost secretly. It is highly subversive. Christians awake you have nothing to lose but your minds, your culture and your children.

I like the premise of this movie, and don't know if we will get to see it or not. But wonder if the movie God is not Dead is a good parallel to it? I was able to see that one. And thought for its efforts was positive in getting the lost to think about who God is.

Did you catch our review of God's not Dead? We weren't so positive about a 'Christian' movie that tried to defend the faith by using the big bang plus evolution. I wrote elsewhere in another article "In my some 22 years of working in this ministry ... I have never met a single individual who came to Christ because he ‘discovered’ he could reconcile evolution with the Bible." I don't think the end (when flawed) justifies the means.

Dear CMI. Having been a science teacher for more than 20 years in a Christian high school, I am not shocked at the response of the "father" in this movie as mentioned in your article. I cannot tell you how many times this same situation has played out for many of my student's parents. There is a phenomenal amount of unawareness by Christian parents as to what is going on in high schools and higher education today and their shock when I tell them. Even members of my own extended family have no clue as to what their children are being taught in both Christian and secular institutions. I am so blessed to be a subscriber to CMI; keep up the great work.
Sincerely Clarence

Thanks Clarence for the comment. Indeed, many parents are unaware of what is being taught, however, based on the prevalence of evolutionary teaching in our culture, it should never come as a shock. That is why CMI exists, to equip families with the biblical worldview that most believers never hear.

Great review! I saw a preview of the movie over the summer and found that it was overall a great movie both for discussion with believers and unbelievers. While the movie may be lacking in a few minor points, I wouldn't hesitate to give it an overall thumbs up. We need more evangelistic movies like A Matter of Faith!

I can't wait to see this! I live in the UK and my husband and I are expecting our first baby in the next month and I really want to get as much material in advance to prepare our children and ourselves for both the truth and the challenges children face these days. I love your magazines and have subscribed my husband to them and he has been totally moved by them. He is now looking to translate some of your articles into Albanian so that he can read it to his dad who is an atheist.

Thanks for your comment Sonica. Indeed, Creation magazine is the best way for believers to equip their families to the challenges not only our children face, but those we are witnessing to. You will also want to get our upcoming milestone documentary, Evolution's Achilles' Heels.

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